“Whatever It Takes” Has New Meaning During COVID-19

“Whatever It Takes” Has New Meaning During COVID-19

At Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, we do whatever it takes to activate and advance the potential in our youth so that they have great futures. When COVID-19 necessitated closures of our Clubhouses and programs we immediately jumped into action to stay connected to our families, youth and the communities we serve.

Upon calling and communicating via email with over 1,000 members so far from our stand alone Clubhouses, we determined that 45% of our families needed cleaning supplies, 35% needed basic hygiene supplies and another 25% needed water and groceries. This is an ongoing process and we expect to reach an additional 1,000 families by the end of the month. Our staff mobilized plans quickly to meet these needs and have launched a number of new initiatives including grab and go lunch sites, food and pantry delivery service, making and delivering cleaning & hygiene buckets and launching the InstaClubhouse with daily LIVE and pre-recorded lessons for K-7 students, teens and our Career Works, youth workforce development program members. In addition to these activities we are re-opening our Estelle S. Campbell Clubhousefor Essential Personnel from Allegheny County.

Cleaning & Hygiene BucketsMore than anything, our families expressed the need for cleaning and hygiene supplies. With financial support from many individual private donors, The Heyward House: The Cameron Heyward Foundation, North Allegheny Lions and allocation of cleaning supplies and additional financial donation from Lowe’s Home Improvement, we are making700 cleaning & hygiene buckets to distribute and deliver to families as well as give some to our community partners who need them for seniors without access. District Manager & BGCWPA Central Board Member, Ken Haines really went the extra mile, literally,by going to Charleston, WV to get alcohol for hand sanitizer. In Carnegie, Distillery Quantum Spirits custom made the cleaning liquid for the buckets. With hygiene kits built at our United Steelworkers Day of Caring and donations from Kimberly Clark we are immediately able to fill this need.

Food Delivery & PantrySingle moms in need, families who have lost their employment and teens have reached out with emergency needs for food and pantry items. We’ve used our vans to locate these items and deliver within hours of the requests and will be hosting two pop-up pantry days in April at our Estelle S. Campbell & Millvale Clubhouses. A sweet delivery is also on the way this week with help from our alumni and friend, Marty Griffin at Sparkt Pittsburgh, Sarris Candies has donated 700 chocolate eggs for our kids!

InstaClubhouseWe offer support to our members in the form of academic programs, homework help, wellness, STEM programs and more. Within the last few weeks, we have offered daily LIVE and pre-recorded activities and videos recorded, edited and posted by our staff to stay in touch with our members. Within the last few weeks, we have had 7,350 views!

COVID-19 Specialty Day CampBGCWPA will be providing fun activities, academic programming and care for school-aged youth beginning soon for essential personnel from Allegheny County (County employees only at this time) at our Estelle S. Campbell Clubhouse in Lawrenceville. This program will be available Monday – Friday from 6 AM – 7:30 PM throughout the duration of school closures. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided daily. This service will be available at no cost in an effort to support our crucial County workers and their families during this trying time.

We would like to thank each and every one of our supporters at this time who have made these activities possible. We have received financial support from our members themselves, staff, the children of our staff, board members, friends and the community at large. As of April 3rd, our relief efforts have raised $11,000
If you want to help us expand these efforts, our kids, their families and staff would greatly appreciate it!